Mail Day: 4/29/09

Today was a historic day in the history of Card Junkie. Not since I got my first mailday from Chris @ Stale Gum have I had a bubble mailer of this import. This envelope chock full of Heritage I needed is from Tom of Tom the Ripper YouTube fame, creator in my humble opinion of the most creative card videos on the net. Along with Chris, Tom is probably my biggest inspiration and the style of my videos owes a great debt to his work. He probably is the most influencial YouTuber in the hobby and I am honored to have completed a trade with him. Anyway, to those of you unfamilar with his videos you may want to watch this one to get an idea where I got my inspiration for this tribute otherwise you may not understand my video at all. But I will also say this, it might be more fun just to watch mine without any warning because it's pretty wacky. Either way, have fun...

Mail Day: 4/24/09

I'm still catching up on some maildays. Here's a couple I got last week from Mike in New Hampshire and Chris @ Nachos Grande. Thanks guys for helping me with my Heritage set. If anyone else out there wants to make a trade my want list is below.

Mail Day: 4/23/09

Okay so I've haven't posted in a while. It was a crazy blue/white weekend up here in State College. To sum it up: long hours @ work, lots of bar hopping and partying w/friends, lots of golf, no sleep, and while all this was happening the Pens advanced to the second round of the playoffs, the Bucs are first in the NL wild card standings(!!?) and I watched most of the NFL draft. Anyway I fell behind on some maildays so I apologize. But here you go, here's a couple bubble mailers I got earlier in the week and did a quick video but just now had the time to edit and upload it so enjoy. They are from Jason @ Bozeman Breaker and Ed @ Roll Out the Barrel. Sorry it took me so long to get this vid up guys but thanks for the trades they were great! I also have another mailday vid coming shortly. And if anyone else wants to make a Heritage trade let me know. My want list is below.

Mail Day: 4/20/09

Got a bunch of maildays from Mike in New Hampshire, Marie @ A Cardboard Problem and Dan @ Saints of the Cheap Seats.

Mail Day: 4/18/09

Got a package from Greg @ Night Owl Cards.

Mail Day: 4/17/09

Got some '08 Topps I need from Trevor in California. Subscribe to his YouTube channel.

2009 Topps Heritage Baseball

eBay seller ID: jkgillcards

2009 Upper Deck Baseball

Picked up another jumbo pack of UD.

1993 Leaf Baseball

Here's my want list for 1993 Leaf Baseball Series 1:
11,16,30,34,45,46,54,62,63,71,72,74,81,83,118,136,140,180,
187,203
email: jeffwolfe2001@yahoo.com

1990 Topps Baseball

Since I accidentally deleted the vid of me opening the six packs of '90 Topps I got off eBay last week, here are the quick highlights in case someone out there was curious (all one of you.) Let's see, there was a Vizquel rookie, a second year Smoltz and nice veteran cards of Yount, Nuschler, Murray, Rice, Gwynn and Winfield. So there you go. I'll have the '93 Leaf recap vid up soon.

Mail Day: 4/13/09

Got a couple maildays from Mike in New Hampshire and Ben @ Cardboard Icons.

Okay so I got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is I accidentally deleted the footage of me opening the '90 Topps and the '93 Leaf. The good news is I'm gonna do a recap video of the '93 Leaf box because I love that set so much and I want to talk about it. Also, it's probably better to watch a 5 minute recap video than two hours of me opening 36 packs of mostly duplicates. It got pretty boring and I can't imagine you guys watching a dozen ten minute videos of me opening packs of duplicates. So maybe it's for the best. =) Anyway I'll work on posting it sometime tomorrow.

I'm Back

And as you can see I have quite a few cards piled up. A few maildays, six packs of '90 Topps and a box of '93 Leaf. I also stopped at the Comic Swap in State College to grab a few more monster storage boxes which I desperately needed. Hopefully I'll have some vids up for you guys later on tonight. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and enjoyed watching the Masters. I know I sure did.

Weekend Update

Just wanted to let you guys know I'm getting ready for a big Easter weekend road trip starting tomorrow afternoon right after work. Going home to visit friends and family, do the holiday thing then hang out with some of my old college buddies. There's a very good chance I may stop at a card shop or two along the way so I will have plenty to talk about when I get back late Monday. I can also tell you I will have at least one mailday (probably many more) and the six packs of '90 Topps I got on eBay have already arrived and I bet I will have the '93 Leaf box by the time I get back as well. Anyways, just wanted to let you guys know I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth and to check back at Card Junkie by Tuesday for lots of fun. Until then I hope everyone has a great weekend.

PNC Park Pics

I was doing some spring cleaning and came across a shoebox filled with old photos. Some of them included pics I took when PNC Park first opened back in 2001. I thought you guys might enjoy these so here you go...

Here's the park from across the river.
As I recall, the first game was an exhibition game with the Mets, I want to say late March. And it was like winter outside. Cold, windy, overcast and even some flurries. Heck they even had the lights on for a 1 o'clock game! We were worried they wouldn't play and I have a feeling that if it wasn't the first game at a new ballpark they wouldn't have.

These were our seats and you can get a good look at the skyline. I remember Mike Piazza hit the first home run and the Pirates lost.

We went back the next week for Opening Day and you can already tell the weather was much better.
Outside the ballpark.
The Willie Stargell statue, which tragically was unveiled just days after his passing. You can't tell in this pic but lots of people left flowers and wreaths underneath.
What you first see when you come out of the concourse. It was breathtaking after years at Three Rivers where all you saw was bright green astroturf and lots of concrete. Here you see green grass and the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline and bridges.
The scoreboard.
Taking our seats.

Opening day festivities included paratroopers.


The Pirates officially take the field at PNC Park for the first time.

Sellout crowd for the first pitch. For the record they lost to the Reds, and future Pirate Sean Casey hit the first official home run.
Here was the first night game we went to a few weeks later.
Added Bonus: Here's a random old pic of a Penguin game I went to back in the late 90's. Me and my roommate went on one of those $20 campus bus trip deals and were in the nose bleed seats for a Pens/Panthers tilt. Memorable moments: Lemieux and Jagr both scored goals, Lemieux's tally moved him up on the all time list and he got a two minute standing ovation, the Pens won, there were more fights than usual (yes!) including this one, and me and my buddy successfully snuck cans of beer in our winter coats. What can I say we were stupid college kids. I can tell you that #31 is Pens goalie Ken Wregget at the bottom. I have no idea who else is in the picture, they look like ants. We were so far away we could literally touch the roof of the Mellon Arena. =)

More Good News

So tonight has been great. The Pens made the playoffs. I won a free rack pack of '87 Donruss out of the blue from Dayf the original Cardboard Junkie. I guess when you help people complete their sets good things happen. I managed to nab a blaster of Heritage on eBay for $18.48 delivered. I was totally shocked because all the Heritage blasters I've been seeing on the bay have been going for well over twenty bucks so I guess I just got lucky. Hopefully I will have it in hand by next week. Oh and the Pirates totally stunk up Busch Stadium tonight as Ian Snell got shelled and our new "third baseman" Andy LaRoche completely dropped a easy pop up that nearly was called an infield fly, which opened up the flood gates. Oh well, 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

2009 Upper Deck Baseball

As promised, to celebrate the Pens clinching a playoff spot, here's a jumbo pack of UD.

Random Thoughts

Today was a sad day for card collecting in State College. I stopped by Target after work and the faithful Heritage retail box which I have enjoyed buying packs from was gone. Knowing that the Walmart nearby has already been sold out for several weeks, I ventured the whole way across town to the "other" Wally World, the nice, new one actually, (the one I live by is a dumpy old one) to get my Heritage fix. Nadda. Realizing the regularity my local big boxes restock their cards (i.e. never) it could be a long, LONG time till I see any Heritage again. Here's hoping Dan @ Saints of the Cheap Seats pulls off a Heritage group break cause I will be there front and center although so far the takers look slim. C'mon folks, you know you want to! Facing this grim reality, I still have reason for optimism. First off, I bought another jumbo pack of Upper Deck while at the nice, new Walmart, which you will find a vid of here shortly. I have a couple of real nice goodies coming in the mail from eBay. Six packs of '90 Topps I got for 59 cents a pack delivered and the piece de l'resistance: a box of '93 Leaf (my favorite product EVAR) that I got for $11.24 delivered! I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to busting that beauty. And to top it off the Pens (who were in 10th place as late as a month ago) are about to clinch a playoff spot tonight and the forever bumbling Pirates look to remain undefeated on the season against the Red Birds. So maybe I can live without Heritage. For a little while. =)

2009 Upper Deck Baseball

To celebrate the Pirates winning their opener in dramatic fashion, here's a jumbo of UD. Enjoy.

Bucs Open Season

The Pirates haven't had a winning season since I was 16. They haven't been in a pennant race since '97. As a cynical Succos fan I'm not holding my breath but I will say they have a good young team and might hover close to 80 wins. But I say that every spring. I'll be watching the Bucs/Cards game and chatting live in the comments if anyone wants to join me...

2009 Topps Heritage Baseball

Picked up three more retail packs of Heritage at Target.

2009 Topps Heritage Baseball

So I stopped in Target on the way home from work today and picked up three more retail packs of Heritage.

2009 Upper Deck Baseball

I was in Wally World and they didn't have any more Heritage so I picked this up instead. A jumbo of UD. I'm gonna see if Target has any Heritage tomorrow.

1981 Donruss Baseball

Got a couple packs of '81 D-Russ off eBay for cheap.